1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to aircraft and, in particular, to aircraft comprised of composite materials. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for a fuselage of a composite aircraft having bonded joints.
2. Background
Aircraft are being designed and manufactured with greater and greater percentages of composite materials. Some aircraft may have more than 50 percent of their primary structure made from composite materials. Composite materials are used in aircraft to decrease the weight of the aircraft. This decreased weight improves performance features, such as payload capacities and fuel efficiencies. Further, composite materials provide longer service life for various components in an aircraft.
Composite materials are tough, light-weight materials created by combining two or more components. For example, a composite material may include fibers and resins. The fibers may be in the form of a substrate or a matrix. For example, the fibers may take the form of a woven cloth. The resin may form a reinforcement for the substrate. The fibers and resins are combined and cured to form a composite material.
Further, by using composite materials, portions of an aircraft may be created in larger pieces or sections. For example, a fuselage in an aircraft may be created in cylindrical fuselage sections that may be put together to form the fuselage of the aircraft. Other examples include, for example, without limitation, wing sections joined to form a wing or stabilizer sections joined to form a stabilizer.
With respect to the fuselage of an aircraft, the different cylindrical sections are joined to each other at locations called “joints”. A “joint” is a location at which two cylindrical fuselage sections may be joined to each other.
Joining these sections of the fuselage to each other may be performed using metallic fasteners. These metallic fasteners may increase the weight of the fuselage more than desired even though the use of composite materials for the fuselage sections reduces the amount of weight for the aircraft. This weight may result in reduced fuel efficiency and a cost of operating the aircraft that is more than desired.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus that takes into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as possibly other issues.